I am an EU citizen and I was informed that my EURAXESS account was breached. They informed me that while the password wasn’t stolen, all of my personal data including addresses, IDs from the CV was stolen and made available on some website.
They say that they’re working towards making the site secure, etc., but I know that my personal info is out there. They have even told me to watch out for scams and phishing attempts over the next few months to come.
I am a bit shaken. Please tell me what steps I can take to gain back some control over this situation?
You can’t do anything besides the usual precautions. I get a notice of a data breach in the mail like every 3 weeks from companies who got hacked. It’s fucking ridiculous. My social security number has probably been leaked like 900 times. All of ours has
All you can do is:
- change passwords
- use good passwords
- check your accounts frequently
- freeze your credit
- use 2FA with literally anything and everything
- try to limit the number of one off accounts you have to create (hard to do when every fucking thing requires a fucking account, i.e. PSN account to play fucking Sony SINGLE PLAYER GAMES on Steam)
- cross your fingers
I would add password manager to that list.
And a service like SimpleLogin for having a different email address per service.
And unless you’re using a social network site and you want your followers from other social network to find you there, use a different username too.
Freeze your credit
I don’t know if it’s the same in the EU, but this is the single biggest thing you can do to protect yourself (I mean besides passwords and such). Freezing your credit makes it much hard to open a line of credit under your name like a random store credit card or such. Please try to do this as soon as you can.
Alias emails. Duck email etc. Duckduckgo extension allows you to create one-click email specifically for whatever bullshit at hand that you can one-click delete later.
We are all in same boat. Ive gotten dozens upon dozens of letters from companies. Most even say, sorry we were hacked 8 months ago. Letting you know all your personal info was stolen.
I’m sure my social security number, work history, previous addresses, relatives, cars I owned, houses…probably how many times I shit per day also.
Just keep your credit permanently frozen until you need it. Keeps credit card offers from your mailbox also…
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Hey hey, you’re an honorary American now! Your flag and genocide kit are in the mail (don’t worry, we’re pretty sure we got the right address from that darkweb database).
But for real there’s not much you can do but keep an eye on it. If Europe has similar credit agencies to the ones in the US, then freeze your credit and keep it frozen until you need to apply for more (new card, car, house, etc).
Use a password manager so if an account gets compromised they can’t get into anything else.
And, as advised, watch for unusual activity (but forever, not just a few months, that’s just a false sense of security).
This should keep you largely safe. My data has been leaked in dozens of breaches, but I do the above, and while I’ve had two instances of card fraud, I don’t see hard enquiries into my credit that I didn’t make even after 6+ years.
And, as advised, watch for unusual activity (but forever, not just a few months, that’s just a false sense of security).
Alternatively, pay a service (one that’s actually reputable!!!*) to watch your shit for you. (Still keep an eye out, of course, but this at least takes a LOT of the load off.)
For example, I pay a 12.95 USD a month for a service provided by my credit union (way better than a bank) and I can input whatever information I want monitored. They do that and let me know as well if they detect any shit going down. They also give me an update email every month letting me know that something has changed (or, likewise, if nothing hasn’t changed :) ).
I started doing this way back in 2018 when my wallet (containing my ID, debit card, social security card, everything) was stolen. (Gods, that was a fucking nightmare.)
*None of that LifeLock bullshit. AFAIK that’s just marketing fluff mainly. (Somebody correct me if I’m wrong on that.) In any case, I don’t trust any service that is provided by the same fucking company that owns Norton. shudder
You can’t. Sorry.
If the datas are in the nature you can’t regain it. If it’s a real danger for you the best you should do is try to invade your name address and everything with a lot of false infos. This will not resolve the spam problem but might save your life literally in others cases
Change your keys and share less going forward.
First of all: Sorry to hear that, this sucks!
Regarding your digital information: I’d suggest you to get a new email and gradually replace the old one in your accounts to avoid spam. Even though they claim your password wasn’t stolen, I’d highly suggest you to change your passwords anyway, just in case. Also, as they say, be very careful about potential phishing attacks.
As for your personal information such as your address: I’m afraid there’s not much you can do. I’d argue, however, that it’s not as valuable to potential hackers. One potential scam involving stolen addresses is sending purchases made with a stolen credit card to your address and asking you to forward it. Don’t accept deliveries you didn’t expect for this reason (depending on your local law it may lead to criminal charges against you, even though you’re still technically the victim of a scam).
Lord forbid they get the password used to protect the data that they stole!
Change your passport I guess.
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